At this year's Comic-Con, women aren't just dressing up as characters from their favorite movies and TV shows, like Inside Out—they're leading and speaking on panels and taking the reins with their version of feminist fandom.
“It’s a newly visible thing,” Sam Maggs stated in an after panel interview. The panel, “Nobody’s Damsel: Writing for Tomorrow’s Women,” discussed the role women play in entertainment and how future writers, actors, and producers “can create characters that are relatable to the upcoming generation of women. Read More

As far as we’ve come with female superheroes in films, their portrayal continues to disappoint. Hillary Pennell and Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz at the University of Missouri conducted a study recently that shows how even the new super-empowered heroes may lower women’s self esteem.
Pennell and Behm-Morawitz showed undergraduate women scenes from two popular superhero film series, Spider-Man and X-Men. The female characters shown from Spider-Man were all victims. The female characters shown from X-Men were heroines. However, females from both series were highly sexualized. Read More

The Sony hack, as problematic as it may have been, really put the spotlight on Hollywood’s backwards insecurities about race, gender, and sexuality when it comes to the types of movies that get produced. Now, due to another round of leaks, Marvel Studios’ lack of confidence in female-led movies has been exposed.
From: "IP" To: "Lynton, Michael" Subject: Female Movies Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2014 05:32:50 -0400
Michael, As we discussed on the phone, below are just a few examples. There are more.
Thanks,
Ike
1. Read More

Surely some comic book fan woke up this week and decided they were going to set out to win BUST's heart. There's been news of all female spinoffs, characters coming out as bisexual, and now, members of bulimia.com are re-envisioning the bodies of super-heroines as more down-to-Earth figures.
When the team at bulimia.com saw Buzzfeed's Disney princess makeovers, they decided they should take these super-human ladies and give them some super human bodies. Their hope is that when viewers see these realistic waistlines, they will be able to better relate to the characters. Read More

It’s been a big week in female superhero universes. First Gwen Stacy was bitten by a radioactive spider, and now Catwoman has come out of the closet as bisexual!
In issue 39 of the Catwoman comics, Batman’s anti-hero kisses another woman. Genevieve Valentine, who took over the character’s spinoff in October, couldn’t be happier that she’s established Selina Kyle as a “cannon bisexual,” which she describes as an “indispensable beat. Read More

In 1973's Spiderman Universe Earth 616, Gwen Stacy dies in the infamous clash between Spider Man and Green Goblin. You would think that 40 years of comic book decay means the iconic character looks too ghastly to resurface, but that isn’t what writer Jason Latour and artists Robbi Rodriguez and Rico Renzi decided.
Despite being nervous about touching long-gone Gwen, Latour--who grew up idolizing white-male superheroes--realized that if she could escape her death, then she could truly become anything. Read More

Great news: The A-Force, an all-female Avengers, will be arriving on graphic novel pages near you this spring. Writers G. Willow Wilson and Marguerite Bennet have stepped up to the task of creating a promising new team of woman heroes with Jorge Molina behind the art for the series.
The all-female team, which will be the fifteenth of its kind in Marvel history, is mostly comprised of kickass supers from different sects of the Marvel Universe, including the popular Ms. Marvel, Storm, and She-Hulk. Read More

Through all of the coverage surrounding the Wonder Woman reboot, Marvel has been lying in wait with some seriously great news. Their new take on Thor isn’t going to be a rehash of the brawny, blonde-headed man with a hammer story.
Instead, Thor will be a girl.
Marvel editor Wil Moss said of the update that “the inscription on Thor’s hammer reads ‘Whosoever holds this hammer, if HE be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor. Read More

By now, you’ve probably seen the plethora of Tumblr renditions of Marvel hero Wolverine as a Disney Princess. The idea is truly clever: David J Prokopetz invited artists to illustrate Wolver-Princess in celebration of Disney’s acquisition of Marvel. But have you considered just how brilliant this idea is?
In addition to being comical (get it?), the illustrations are a sharp examination of the feminine and masculine images we consume throughout our childhood. Read More

At their best, comic books are about outsiders and underdogs; their heroes are so powerful because of their ability to overcome adversity, to fight for humankind and for equality. So it’s surprising that even in comics, a field that has the potential to be so inclusive, women and other minorities are underrepresented.
But one amazing lady, a superhero in her own right, aims to change that. Kelly Sue DeConnick writes the Captain Marvel comics, epic stories that trace the heroic adventures of Carol Denvers. Right off the bat, Denvers (aka Ms. Read More